From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 01:23:44 +0800
To: Duncan Frissell <guy@panix.com>
Subject: Re: This is a listed crime?
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980921142104.397Q-100000@hun.org>
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980922231717.0090ba10@idiom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 02:39 PM 9/21/98 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote:
>False.  You are never required to talk to a peace officer, Fed, or
>investigator unless you want to.  They can arrest you of course (with
>probable cause ha ha).  Even then, you still don't have to talk to them.
>In criminal cases you *never* have to talk to anyone.

The Supremes have, unfortunately, decided that police can hold you
for up to 48 hours without getting around to charging you,
and if there's a weekend around they can often stretch that.
Some cops find that an interesting answer to the question
"You've read me my Miranda rights and now you're insisting
that I tell you what you want before I can speak to my lawyer who's
in the next room?" "Yup, you can be as silent as you want in the
county jail, and [since we're charging you with a bogus municipal charge anyway],
we can charge you with a [bogus] misdemeanor instead.",
which had a certain craftiness I hadn't really expected out of them :-)


				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
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